“After these things I looked, and behold,
a door standing open in heaven.
And the first voice which I heard
was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying,
‘COME UP HERE, and I will show you things
which must take place AFTER THIS.’”
Revelation 4:1

After this? After what?

After what took place in chapters 1-3. After the Church age.

The church is mentioned repeatedly throughout the first three chapters of the Book of Revelation, where Christ is seen walking among the churches and giving messages to them. But from chapter 4:1 on, “after these things,” the church is not seen again even once throughout the entire account of the Tribulation period. The church will not be on earth during that time, but will have been taken “up here.” Indeed, there will be people saved during the Tribulation, but those are “the Tribulation saints,” multitudes saved after the Rapture. They will not be raptured, they will be martyred.

From the moment John is told to “come up here,” for the remainder of the vision he is in the presence of the Lord, looking down on the dreadful events of the Tribulation taking place on the earth. He is seeing it from heaven.

The PURPOSE of the Tribulation is God’s dealing with Israel, preparing her to meet her Messiah. It is also the time of the long prophesied wrath of God being poured out on a Christ-rejecting world. The church is NOT appointed to God’s wrath (1st Thessalonians 5:9). The Lord Jesus isn’t going to go down and beat his bride then take her to heaven; he is going to receive her before the wrath of God is unleashed.

More about the Rapture of the church:
THE RAPTURE